e*toile

It was the Boy’s birthday yesterday. Knowing how much the Boy loves food and eating, I had booked a table at Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, which was the last big restaurant in London we haven’t done, and one of the remaining gaps in our UK gastronomic map.

Unfortunately, we both caught a cold over this past Bank holiday weekend, when we got caught in the rain in my (haphazardly, last-minute-planned) birthday weekend in the Costwolds for the Boy. After a mere week of sunshine, our reliably depressing and grim UK weather descended again, giving us dull drizzles and grey skies over the crucial long weekend.

I didn’t want to cancel the table, despite me feeling like hell, because I didn’t want him to remember his birthday as a day where we’re both glum, ill, depressed, and stuck in bed with a cold. So… I pulled a long night the night before to finish up my work, took a sick day and Beecham’s Night Nurse (which really knocks me out) and stayed in bed all morning.

We persevered and dragged our sorry, sniffly asses to Alain Ducasse, and were a pretty sad sight: blowing our noses on tissues in between courses, clearing my stuffed nose with Vick’s Inhaler, popping Beecham’s Day Nurse pills after our first course, and running off to the toilet to cough up my funky-coloured phlegm (eeww.. i know. only once though!). But it was pretty comedic at the same time. The waiting staff were all very sympathetic and felt quite sorry for the state we were in. And I’m sure we’re the only people who’ve ever eaten at Alain Ducasse while being so ill!

It was almost a bit of a shame to waste the food. I was rather afraid that my cold would inhibit my tastebuds or kill my appetite and I wouldn’t appreciate the food. But I still did! To be fair, I would have enjoyed it more had I been in the pink of health (as it was, I felt so weak after my first course that I was wondering if i would have the strength to finish our tasting menu). But it was all worth it: for the comedy factor, and for making it a special day for the Boy (it would probably an unforgettable birthday too, given the comedy factor - so it’s probably just as well! ;)).

I’m just hoping I’ll be hale and hearty on my birthday - one tragi-comic birthday a year is enough!

The Boy had planned and organised a richly packed and highly detailed weekend for 24-25 January to French and Spanish Basque country. The plan was to fly into Biarritz early on saturday morning (we got up at 4am to catch the flight!), drive to San Sebastien in Spain (30 minutes from Biarritz) and have Saturday lunch and dinner and Sunday lunch at three among the top restaurants in Europe (Arzak #5, Martin Berasategui #3, and Akelare #29 respectively), take in some sight seeing of the Basque coast/countryside in between, and end the weekend by visting the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, before flying back to London from the Bilbao airport.

But the biggest storm in France since 1999 completely ruined the Boy’s best laid plans - our plane was re-routed to Limoges, about midway through France and c.400km from Biarritz near the Spanish border. We had to rent a car and spend all day driving down to San Sebastien, sometimes having to slalom between trees that had fallen on the road and making several detours necessitated by road closures because of fallen trees. And, to add insult to injury, we were stuck in a 2-hour traffic jam just near an hour from our destination. So instead of fine dining at martin berasategui, we arrived starving in san sebastien at about midnight, and had greasy Argentinian empanadas at a local joint which had football on TV.

Happily, we managed to get a new reservation for Martin Berasategui for Sunday lunch, which was the only thing that saved the weekend from being a total and complete fiasco. I was particularly keen to try Martin Berasategui because of his reputation for innovative food (which I strongly prefer to traditional food). And I was completely blown away by the food- taste-wise, it is the best I’ve had so far, and very innovative too (though not as experimental/intellectually engaging as Fat Duck)! Furthermore, Martin Berasategui, was actually in the kitchen - at most of the other places we’ve been to that had big name chefs, the chefs were either away travelling, or not in the kitchen. And, to top off an amazing meal, we actually got to meet Martin Berasategui, the man himself, in the flesh - he shook our hands and we even took a picture with him, and got a tour of the kitchen!

I’ll write more about the food and experience another day. In the meanwhile, Happy Chinese New Year of the Ox!